i’m angry at myself!

this blog will no longer be active, but it will stay up as an archive. i’ve moved to @suyins :)

hi everyone!! i’m remaking this blog as a main. i’ll still be primarily an atla blog, but i will occasionally post content from other fandoms. also my queue still has like 70 posts, so just ignore 😭

tagging mutuals under the cut!

tysm!!! here are some grocery store zukka headcanons 😌

zuko is the cashier

he hates it

a lot

like a loT

but then sokka comes in, buying a shit ton of groceries for his entire family

the first thing zuko notices is how cute sokka’s hair is

then he notices how much stuff sokka just dumped onto the conveyor

zuko asks wtf he’s doing with enough food to feed a small army

sokka winks says it’s for a special occasion

zuko blushes and awkwardly compliments sokka’s hair

sokka kinda pauses mid sentence and says “you’re nice hair”

the two kinda just stand there for a moment before laughing really hard

they talk while zuko haphazardly checks the food out

zuko would periodically ask sokka what each ingredient is for

sokka loves telling zuko about the importance of each ingredient

they do this for almost half an hour before someone gets in line behind sokka

zuko quickly writes his number on the back of sokka’s reciept

Psst, hey, kids, do you like crying while reading a fanfiction? Then I can recommend you this absolutely amazing story Blue by @hollypunkers if you haven’t read it yet  ❤

sokka: u make my heart bust a nut

Wrote a Sci-Fi AU Yueki fic for @atla-wlw-week and made these two designs for them on a sci fi character generator hehe

Since Suki was a little girl, scrappy and essentially raising herself in the rough and tumble streets of Earth Outpost KY0-SH1, her sights had always been set towards the moon. Little did she know that when she grew up, she’d fall in love with the moon chief’s daughter.

(aka- Suki is a badass fighter pilot from earth in a secret relationship with moon princess Yue. Yearning and zero-gravity dancing ensues)

Read the full fic at AO3 here

[ID:  The first picture is a photo of Suki reimagined as a space pilot through a character designer.  She is wearing a green flight suit with brown and black patches, brown boots, and a long black cape.  There are gold bracers on her forearms and red and gold flight goggles on the top of her head.  She has a red smokey eye and dark lipstick.  In the background is the dusty surface of the moon, and other planets beyond her.

Aang faces these questions head on, much like the element of the season: Earth. He is pressured in the first episode of seaosn two to use the Avatar State to his advantage, even if it means going against the person he is. Katara says, “I’m not saying the Avatar State doesn’t have incredible, and helpful power... but you have to understand... for the people that love you, watching you be in that much rage and pain is really scary.”

[ID: two screenshots from the episode "The Avatar State". To the left is a screenshot of Aang from the chest up, hovering in the air. His eyes and tattoos glow, and he glares angrily at the audience. To the right is a screenshot of Katara on her hands and knees, looking up at Aang, who is off screen, with a concerned expression. End ID.]

In the episode The Desert, we see Aang’s grief over the loss of Appa, yet another sacrifice he unwillingly makes to the world, force him again into the Avatar State.

[ID: a screenshot of Aang from the episode "The Desert". He is in the Avatar State, rising a few feet above the ground, sand being kicked up by the wind around him. Katara's arm reaches out to him, grabbing his wrist. He looks down at her with an expression of anguish. End ID.]

As Aang battles internally with whether to choose emotion vs. power, toward the finale of season two, he is asked to make another sacrfice, and asks a very valid and important question:

[ID: a screenshot of Aang from the episode "The Guru". Aang sits cross-legged on the ground, gesturing with his hands as he talks to Guru Pathik. He has one eyebrow raised, doubtful as he asks, "Why would I choose cosmic energy over Katara? How could it be a bad thing that I feel an attachment to her?" End ID.]

Aang’s decision at first glance might seem like a foolish one to make, to choose attachment rather than godlike power, but his choice is affirmed by Iroh. “Perfection and power are overrated. I think you are very wise to choose happiness and love.” Aang, a character who has been forced to sacrifice everything he has for the rest of the world, is now being asked to give up one of the biggest attachments he feels, and asks with good reason as to why he should have to. How is it fair for him to have to sacrifice everything for everyone else? This plays out on an even bigger scale in season three, as Aang is pressured to give up his own morality and cultural views for the rest of the world. Sadly, his wish to not give up his love for Katara does not last, because Aang is not allowed to have a choice. He is forced in his battle with Azula, Zuko, and the Dai Li to let go of his earthly attachments, and his love for Katara, forced to choose power over emotion.

[ID: a screenshot from the episode "The Crossroads of Destiny". Aang is shown from the chest up, grimacing as he says, "I'm sorry Katara". End ID.]

This moment is not painted as a positive thing, but as a tragedy. Aang is a boy who has experienced unimaginable loss, sacrificing his culture, his entire sense of belonging, and now finally the love which he feels in order to try and rise to the responsibility of saving the world. It is only seconds after he makes this sacrifice that he is killed by Azula. Typically, we would see a main character, or any character really, gaining power to defeat an enemy as something good or as something to celebrate, but not in Avatar. This moment is heart breaking, and his death that follows moments after is even more so.

[ID: a screenshot from "The Crossroads of Destiny". The image is colored completely black, the only thing distinguishing Aang being the white lines he is drawn in. He is in the Avatar State, eyes wide as a branch bright lightning strikes him. End ID.]

Aang being forced to strip himself of all that he is is not treated as a good thing, and he is for lack of better words, punished for being forced to choose power over love. One of the reasons this specific battle is so emotionally driven isn’t only because Aang dies, but because Katara is present. Aang might have felt that it were in his best interest and in hers to let her go to reach his full potential of the Avatar State, and he does accomplish this, but it is Katara who does not let him go. Devestated, she creates a giant wave as she rushes to catch him as he plummets to the ground, not even caring if she were to drown the Dai Li, Zuko, or Azula in the process.

[ID: a screenshot from "The Crossroads of Destiny". Katara kneels on the ground, her clothing dirty and ragged, looking devastated as she holds Aang's limp body in her arms. Aang's own clothing is torn and dirtied, with a gigantic hole in the back and an entire sleeve missing. Katara looks ahead, tears streaming down her face. End ID.]

Katara tries to heal him, and it seems as if he truly is dead as she sobs over his body, before he comes back to life. Aang is saved not because he is somehow lucky, or because Katara is simply an amazing healer, but because Aang has someone in the world who loves him deeply.

Aang is given a second chance at life because Katara gives it to him. It is Katara’s unwavering belief, support, and love in Aang which not only broke him out of the iceberg, bringing the Avatar and the symbol of hope back to the world, but that also brings his soul back to his body at the end of season two, launching his character into his last and final arc of the show: staying true to his beliefs and emotions despite the demand to assert unlimited power where compassion and forgiveness should be.

[ID: a screenshot of Aang and Katara. It is dark out, and the image is in dull colors. Aang is laying down, held up by Katara, who sits beside him. His eyes are half-lidded as he stares up at her, smiling. Katara looks down at him as she holds his head, a relieved, happy expression on her face. End ID.]

In the first episode of season three, Katara and Aang exchange a short moment of dialogue that is very powerful in meaning, both for each character and also for a huge theme of the show:

Aang: I went down. I didn’t just get hurt, did I? It was worse than that. I was gone, but you brought me back.

Katara: I just used the spirit water from the North Pole. I don’t know what I did, exactly.

Aang: you saved me.

[ID: a screenshot from "The Awakening". Aang is shown from the chest up, looking at Katara, who is off screen, with a grim expression. He has gauze on his shoulder that is kept in place by a wrapped bandage, and he now has short-cropped black hair on his head, covering some of the arrow on his forehead. Katara's hand reaches out to brush the side of Aang's head. End ID.]

Aang’s character development has always been interesting to me, specifically in the way it tackled the theme of having unlimited power. He is very much a character that sacrifices, and then sacrifices some more, but is never really rewarded for doing so. The contrast between the Crossroads of Destiny, season two episode 20, and Avatar Aang, season three episode 21, will always fascinate me. Zuko comes to a crossroad in the finale of season two, but Aang does as well. Both Zuko and Aang make the wrong choice, Zuko siding with Azula, and Aang trading a part of himself to obtain power.

Contrast the Crossroads of Destiny to Avatar Aang, where Aang goes from having a decision made for him to making his own decision and standing by it. He is first forced to choose power, which ultimately gets him killed. But by the end of the show, Aang has learned that no one can make his decisions for him, nor do they have the right to. Aang is pressured by everyone excluding Katara, to make the choice to kill Firelord Ozai, which would be his ultimate sacrifice - giving away his own morals for the world. But Aang has learned better by now, and refuses.

[ID: a screenshot of Aang from the episode "Avatar Aang". He is shown from the shoulders up, shirtless. His head is bowed slightly as he grimaces, a pained expression on his face. In the background Ozai is on his hands and knees, the plateaus behind them tinted red. End ID.]

By standing strong on his decision to stay true to his own beliefs and morals, he is finally rewarded with the knowledge of energy bending, a skill no previous avatar had encountered. Aang demanded a third option repeatedly, refusing to cave to what others expected of him; for him to use unlimited power to end the war. To end violence with more violence, something Aang feared and avoided as much as possible. Aang is told by Ozai that he is weak regardless of being the avatar, but Ozai is a man who has let power consume him, completely erasing whatever morals he may have had prior. Aang, however, is a character that strikes me as so strong not because he is the avatar, but because of his spirit.

"The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed. Since beginning-less time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light. To bend another’s energy, your own spirit must be unbendable, or you will be corrupted, and destroyed.”

Aang, through trial and error, finally develops into a fully realized avatar, mastering the Avatar State and the power he possesses, while refusing to let it change any aspect of who he is.

[ID: a screenshot of Aang fro the chest up. He is dressed in yellow Air Nomad robes, and around his neck there is a brown bead necklace with the symbol for air on it. His eyes are closed, and he wears a peaceful expression on his face. End ID.]

We end the show with this being one of the last moments of Avatar Aang we see, as he has this moment of true peace. He affirms to us that sometimes, holding tight to the things that you love and believe in, and that make you who you are, are the most powerful actions you can take in life. That the world cannot take the things that you believe in, that it cannot take away your spirit so long as you do not let it.

roh’s favourites: Zuko & a++ character development

you ever read a kiss scene so good, so gutwrenchingly beautiful and painful and sweet and full of stomach butterflies, that it makes you wanna fckin scream?

The second image shows Mai glaring at Zuko with a stern expression, with Zuko staring back with a startled expression.

In the third image, Mai smiles as Zuko rolls his eyes and says, “Ok. Fine.”

The fourth image zooms out to show the two of them under the tree, with the garden wall behind them. Zuko leans towards Mai, who is holding the dagger, and warns, “Don’t break it!” Mai replies, “I’m not going to break it, Zuko.”

The fifth image shows Mai and Zuko, looking a few years older, under the same tree in the sunlight. Mai holds a small knife in her hand and tells Zuko, “I think I like these knives better than that dagger of yours.” Zuko smiles and points to the tree trunk behind them and says, “Well you can try them out here! We can carve out our names on it!”

The sixth image shows Mai and Zuko looking a little bit older again, with Mai leaning on the tree and Zuko beside her, resting his arms on his knees. The tree behind them has their names in Chinese characters carved into the trunk. Mai looks at him while holding two knives as he says to her, “I’ve been thinking, and I think I want to join one of Father’s war meetings today.”

The seventh image shows Mai sitting alone under the same tree in the dark, holding three knives and looking at their carved names on the trunk.